Hi,

It turns out that my mom is going to be a joint sponsor (instead of my brother who I thought was originally). My mom files a joint return with my dad. On their joint return, the income is not separated according to who earned it. If my mom only wants to be the joint sponsor, how should we separate the income.

For example, for the three previous years adjusted gross income, I assume we have to put, the total adjusted gross income listed which includes both my mom and dad's income. However, for the individual annual income, we should put only my mom's income (W2's + 1099's). Of course, in this case there will be a large discrepancy between lines #23 and lines #24. Is this correct?

Also, not income related, but the question #20 concerning military service. The question seems to indicate only the petitioner checks this box (me), so my mom should not check anything here since she is not the petitioner. Is this correct?

Thanks,
John

Hi,

Since I didn't get any replies to this question, I thought I would bump it up. I apologize is this is bad form, but we are a little unsure about the issues. Basically, how should you fill out the income tax questions for a sponsor who fills out a joint tax return but will not use the non-sponsor spouse's income?

John

Hey John --

This is what we did. My mom was the joint sponsor, and she was a joint tax filer with my dad but we didn't have him do the I-864A. We put her current gross income (i.e. what she was earning at the time of filing -- NOT the figure from her most recent tax return!) on line 23 as this was her individual income. This figure then gets re-entered on line 24a. As this was adequate for sponsorship and exceeded the poverty line, no further amounts were entered at 24 except inside the black-bordered box, where we entered the figure from 24a as the total of lines 24a and 24b (which was $0).

At line 25, we entered the gross figure from the tax return which included my dad's unadjusted gross income as well. We attached her tax returns (and W-2s and 1099s) to show what part was hers of the gross income -- no need to tease out her amount, despite the apparent discrepancy. She also included the figures for the two years previous. All I can say is that this was the advice I got here on VJ and it worked for us...

Good luck!

That was what I suspected. Thanks. Good luck too.

Now, I got my dad's I-864 today and he listed four jobs for question #22a. Since they would not fit, he wrote two of the jobs at the bottom of the page. Is this ok, or should we list employer #2 as "see attachment" and then write the other three employers on an additional sheet? It makes me nervous that he wrote them at the bottom of the page. Any advice?

Thanks,

John